Namco Bandai Games has announced that it's set to bring the next instalment in the Tycoon simulation series, Space Station Tycoon, to Nintendo's Wii midway through 2007, in collaboration with developer Wahoo Studios.

Like those before it, the game's about building and maintaining things to earn cash. The catch this time though, is that obviously, players will be running space stations, alongside a cast of over 30 zany characters, a humourous and evolving story, co-op mode, and more.

Jeremy Throckmorton, who's one of the game's designers, explained to IGN, "Space Station Tycoon puts you into the shoes of a wet-behind-the-ears kid named Shawn, and his sarcastic monkey friend Tam, who decides he wants to run space stations. He travels the galaxy building and maintaining stations where you have to deal with and serve all manner of wacky characters."

Describing the use of the Wii Remote and in turn, the game mechanics, he continued, "The controls for Space Station Tycoon are designed specifically for the Nintendo Wii. Given the nature of the remote as a pointer, it's much closer to what you would expect with a mouse. This has obviously allowed us to explore gameplay mechanics that wouldn't be easily accessible using a standard controller."

"We've designed the game to take advantage of the unique properties of the Wii remote," said Throckmorton. "Players will be able to interact with the elements of their station using a variety of motions and interface elements. We don't want to spoil anything about actions like that too soon, but you'll be hearing more about that in the near future. People should have a really good time with some of the stuff we're doing."

Instead of being restricted, players are going to be able to build there own stations, which are made from what are called islands. "We have a ton of different environments in the game, and the environments can have very direct gameplay effects," explained Throckmorton. "For example, a nova sun can eat away at parts of your station that are exposed to it.

"Building a station inside a hollowed out asteroid severely limits the area you have to expand your station. Trying to manage a station on the uvula of a giant whale that swallowed you? That presents challenges of its own too. We're quite sure no one is ready for the type of scenarios Shawn will be facing. When you have characters like ours, you need to have a world that works for them."

For ease of use, the game will be played almost exclusively with just the Wii-mote. Further, while it'll lack an online multiplayer component, the team are exploring the potential of making use of the WiiConnect24 service.